Efficient degradation of materials is important to a variety of industries including the asphalt, mining, and excavation industries. In the asphalt industry, pavement may be degraded using attack tools, and in the mining industry, attack tools may be used to break minerals and rocks. Attack tools may be used when excavating large amounts of hard materials. In the asphalt recycling industry, often, a drum with an array of attack tools attached to it may be rotated and moved so that the attack tools engage a paved surface to be degraded. Because attack tools engage materials that may be abrasive, the attack tools may be susceptible to wear. One development disclosed in the patent art for reducing wear of the attack tool, is to add a polycrystalline diamond layer to the tip of the tool.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,733,087 to Hall et al., which is herein incorporated by reference for all that it contains, discloses an attack tool for working natural and man-made materials that is made up of one or more segments, including a steel alloy base segment, an intermediate carbide wear protector segment, and a penetrator segment comprising a carbide substrate that is coated with a superhard material. The segments are joined at continuously curved interfacial surfaces that may be interrupted by grooves, ridges, protrusions, and posts. At least a portion of the curved surfaces vary from one another at about their apex in order to accommodate ease of manufacturing and to concentrate the bonding material in the region of greatest variance.